About us

 

 

What is EASI?

The EQUAL Empowering Asylum Seekers to Integrate (EASI) Development Partnership (DP) is a partnership of key voluntary organisations and educational institutions in England. The partnership aims to contribute to the social and vocational integration of asylum seekers by enabling them to acquire skills in preparation for employment. The EASI DP tests new approaches of delivering support, training and volunteering opportunities for this group.

Consisting of fourteen organisations, the EASI DP is involved in projects relating to:

What is EQUAL?

The EQUAL Programme is a European Social Fund (ESF) Community Initiative which operated across all Member States of the European Union from 2001 to the end of 2007. The programme developed and tested new ways of challenging discrimination and inequalities in the labour market.

EQUAL was based on a partnership approach, enabling organisations with common interests to work together at both national and transnational level. The programme was divided into 'themes', each with a different focus. All 'themes' had the shared purpose of identifying innovative practice and a commitment to equality. Theme I had a focus on asylum seekers and EASI was based on this theme.

Click here for more information about the European Commission's EQUAL initiative

Background to the Project

Several reports have shown asylum seekers are one of the most disadvantaged groups in UK society and in other EU member states. The Audit Commission's (2000) report Another Country: Implementing Dispersal under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 highlights the problems faced by asylum seekers in dispersal areas. These are:

These problems are also highlighted by Anglo German Foundation's (2001) report Spreading the costs of asylum seekers: a critical assessment of dispersal policies in Germany and the UK and a Home Office report, Investigating the provision of English language training to refugees in London and the regions (David Griffiths, 2002).